A Lesson in Broken Glass

Oh, my goodness!  The last few days have been insanely crazy.  There is no end in sight for a little while, so I am just having to embrace it and laugh my way through it.  Twice in the last 4 days we have had to clean up broken glass in my house.  We have lived here for almost 6 months, and the only other time we have had to clean up glass was when Ms. T tried to kill me. But twice in four days, we have heard the shattering sound that scares any momma.

On Sunday evening, we had The Hub's family over for dinner after church.  I had to help the Babs with a few things on the computer, and the children were playing in The Boy's room.  Unbeknownst to me, The Boy felt that his bedside lamp would be of better use on the floor rather than on the night stand.  Don't ask me why he did this.  I don't know any other reason besides that he is a boy.  He knows better than this. 

So, it was getting late, and the family had to leave.  As soon as they got in the truck to leave, I told the kids to start picking up toys, it was time to get ready for bed.  The very next sound I hear is a crash.  Like breaking glass.  Cue scary movie music here.

I immediately said, "Something broke. "  I then yelled, "Kids don't move!"  Doug and I raced to The Boy's room to see what the noise was.  It just happened to be the lamp.  You know, the one that used to sit by his bed.  With the CFL bulb in it.

Now, I don't know if you use CFL bulbs in your house.  We do.  They are more energy efficient, blah blah blah.  If you don't know what a CFL is, it's on of the swirly lookin' bulbs.  Well, in case you didn't know, they contain mercury.  Yeah, that's right.  Mercury.  You know, the one that causes mercury poisoning. 

Now would probably be the time that I should tell you the required steps to take to clean up a CFL break.  You can google it like I did.  Just know that it is rather extensive, and do NOT vacuum or sweep the area.  That will just spread the mercury around.    Instead of telling you all the steps that you have to take to ensure the health of your family, I am going to tell you the reason that the bulb got broken in the first place.

When I asked The Boy how the bulb got broken, he said, "I tried to turn off the lamp.  With my butt."

Um, excuse me.  You did what? 

That's right, ya'll.  My usually incredibly responsible and smart 7 year old decided that it would be funny to try to turn off the lamp with his butt, and sat on the bulb.  We are incredibly blessed that this story did not wind up in the ER.  He didn't have a scratch on him.  I was so baffled by trying to figure out what would make him want to do this that I didn't even know what to say. 

Tonight's glass episode was not nearly as exciting, but about just as fun to clean up.  The Little Miss had apparently put a bottle of nail polish (red with gold shimmer, just in case you were wondering) on the chest freezer.  Right next to the turkey I had just pulled out.  So when The Hubs went to move the turkey to the fridge to thaw, the pretty red nail polish bottle decided to take a dive to the floor.  Long story short, my house now reeks of nail polish remover.

May you have a glass free Thursday!

Ms. L


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